Asian American Representation in Film Media. The Far and Few In Between.

In a time where there’s a push for diversity, we need to consider another group of people.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve watched Hollywood blockbusters with my Asian friends and Laotian family, especially The Marvel cinematic universe. With 2019’s Avengers Endgame culminating 11 years of film into a culturally spectacular event. It left my brother and me in awe, yet the film also reminds me of thoughts of exclusion I’ve always known.

With such an empowering focus on both black and white men and women, the absence of Asians shows there is still an issue with a lack of proper Asian American representation in American media. It’s too little for how important they are and what’s there is usually minor characters or underdeveloped, stereotypical comedic relief.

Washington Post writer Ada Tseng wrote a timeline of the few mainstream American films where Asian characters have the spotlight: This includes Crazy Rich Asians, Mulan, Harold & Kumar, Fast & The Furious, Better Luck Tomorrow, and The Joy Luck Club.

As for Hollywood movies that make a poor effort to represent Asians. Often, it’s because of whitewashing or yellow-face of the likes of Scarlett Johansson in Ghost in the Shell, Matt Damon in The Great Wall, The entire cast of The Good Earth, and Mickey Rooney in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. I want American moviegoers to become vocal and demand more Asian characters with dignified importance.

When considering where the problems originate from, it’s important to recognize the history of American immigration laws, the propaganda of militant conflicts, and the stereotypes birthed from them that lingers in society today.

Jenn Fang from Teen Vogue wrote how their origins date back to the 1850s when Chinese immigrants migrate to work in the gold mines, agricultural jobs, and factory workers in the western United States. One particular job they were proficient at was the railroad industry. Subsequently, Chinese laborers in numbers became successful and became entrepreneurs.

As a result, white Americans grew a disliking for Chinese immigrants as they were seen as stealing their jobs. By having a foreign culture so different from what Westerners are accustomed to, the culture of the Chinese as they establish communities were perceived as unusual and beneath whites.

Believing that it weakens the cultural and moral standards of white Americans. Legislation passed laws that reduced the number of immigrant ships China is allowed to send. By 1882 and then 1913, The Chinese Exclusion Act and The Alien Land Laws prohibited the immigration of people from China and other Asian countries.

Similar acts happened during World War II Japan, and the Vietnam War. Times where the U.S. was at war with Eastern Asians. These conflicts represent a time where they challenge America’s world influence. As propaganda, the public was groomed to be wary of the Eastern Asian image, also known as Yellow Peril. Viewing people of East Asia are a threat to the western world.

Connecting back to filmography. Unfortunately, most of the time instead of using real Asians, white actors would take on yellow-face to make their appearance look more Asian and play the characters.

Another option is whitewashing, making an Asian role suitable for a white actor. From the 19th century to modern day, according to Fang, “audiences apparently preferred the fictionalized Asian as it was projected through the caricatured yellow-face antics of a white actor.” It’s something the audience has become accustomed to. An example of such is The Good Earth and Ghost in the Shell. Movie executives think it’s better to have “white actors in yellowface for the film’s leads because they apparently deemed American audiences unprepared for a feature film starring an ensemble cast led by Asians.”

High profile Asian actors in the 20th and 21st century remain a rarity and frequently limited to racially offensive caricatures “by visually suggesting miscegenation, a villain” or hyper-sexually exotic via “‘China dolls or ‘Dragon ladies.” Sessue Hayakawa and Anna May Wong are examples of such.

Contemporary stereotypes of both Asian men and women fall under the model minority, a group superior to others in terms of academics and rigorousness. Leading to harmful perfectionism. Being too academically focused, uncharismatic, awkward, cowardly and lacking social skills. Essentially being the perfect worker, but an unattractive presence in the social space. However, for Asian women, there exists a stereotype where they’re sexually exotic and submissive. Creating a harmful fetish of “the dragon lady” which is a sexually damaging assumption.

To further prove how much of an issue the lack of respectable representation is. New York Times Thessaly La Force reported in 2018 the discovery “by the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism showed Asian-Americans representing only 1 percent of all leading roles in Hollywood.”

Her statistics portray a bleak picture, one Asian actor in American history has won an Academy Award for best actor: Ben Kingsley in 1983s Gandhi. Additionally, only “twelve actors of Asian descent have ever received nominations from the academy. All for supporting roles” except one.

In a New York Times report, for the casting of the male lead of Crazy Rich Asians, the movie’s producers were told by several prominent American theater schools that they hadn’t had a male Asian graduate in years.

Something that Force made note of is other places of Asian American success: Poetry, writing, directing, photography, fashion, and architecture. Concluding “only in the representational arts do Asians remain unseen — mostly in film and television”.

To her, the general American mainstream does not accept the physiognomy of the Asian face. The stereotypes forged from Yellow Peril persist. Among their differing appearance, Asian men are the sexless weakling or sex-crazed villain and women are the mystique dragon fetish and docile.

With the surge of Asian immigrants in 1965, the model minority idea took shape. Asians characterized by being competitive and hard-working, yet “soulless” lacking in creativity and sex appeal. This is the damaging stereotype that American films overuse when whitewashing isn’t present.

Damaging in it becomes what the common person come to psychologically expect. Anything that isn’t those personality traits is viewed as oddities.

Entertainment and amusement are supposed to be just for fun, however, when does that fun hurt people? Media affects the way we think of certain aspects of the world. They inspire us, that is why it matters. We see Asian actors self-deprecate themselves in offensive roles for the amusement of mainstream America. If admirable representation is an issue, why do some Asian Americans choose to a negative reflection?

Larry Yu from the International Examiner wrote in 2009 about the psychology behind two particular cases that embody negative stereotypes in reality TV: William Hung and Tila Tequila.

Media is supposedly a reflection of life. Which then influences impressionable minds. Showing a person at their worst all the time leaves the idea that their worst is quintessentially an average. The United States is this diverse country that prides itself in mixing cultures. The racial images of William Hung and Tila Tequila are representing the asexual geek and loudmouth bimbo questioning the meaning of assimilation.

Sadly, the few see negative representation as still representation. What’s demoralizing from the likes of Sixteen Candles Long Duk Dong are seen as okay because an Asian carried out the act to get the Asian face out there. It sets a harmful precedent and normalizes something wrong.

Witnessing a stereotype for long duration result in becoming the stereotype. If that is all what people, especially the marginalized group sees. They’ll start believing it as it assimilates into their experience as an Asian American in society. It’s who they seemingly are to the masses.

Racial activist Julia Oh remarked that there are two ends of sexuality on the spectrum of stereotyping. “The emasculated demonized Asian men… Asian women as helpless, exotic, sexually adroit lotus blossoms.” Unhealthy relationships are founded on these notions, making the representation issue more severe.

With all that be damaging, what can be done? Encouragement and pride.

Asian led productions make way for proper representation. Who better to tell who one really is, then themselves with no artistic restrictions. In the past, we put people down for considering any idea, in this day in age, we shouldn’t and online supporters are nowhere to back them up.

Kimberly May Jew, a theater professor at The University of Utah, interviewed three Asian American women performing arts professionals. The interview consists of how they dealt with racist performances for appeasement and later garner the support to create their own productions and teams to make genuine stories they wanted to tell of the Asian cultural experience.

Minority representation is difficult, fortunately, we can band together to make a statement. 2018’s Crazy Rich Asians are exactly that. Stereotypes of the 1850s and 1960s don’t have a place. With social media, people of all backgrounds can voice out to more supporters than ever. Asian Americans have the tools to speak to injustices in Hollywood and an ability to reach out to like-minded people to create something that is worthy of their identity.

The racist stigma of people will never go away, but that’s all the reason to prove deniers wrong. With every following year society and technological rules evolve. From that, barriers of entry fall and more tools of self-made opportunities show what the once unnoticed are truly capable of.

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